Traditional lit-end cigarettes are consumed by lighting an end of a wrapped tobacco rod and drawing air predominantly through the lit end by suction at a mouthpiece end of the cigarette. Traditional cigarettes deliver smoke as a result of combustion, during which a mass of tobacco is combusted at temperatures which often exceed 800° C. during a puff. The heat of combustion releases various gaseous combustion products and distillates from the tobacco. As these gaseous products are drawn through the cigarette, they cool and condense to form a smoke containing the tastes and aromas associated with smoking. Traditional cigarettes produce sidestream smoke during smoldering between puffs. Once lit, they must be fully consumed or be discarded. Relighting a traditional cigarette is possible but is usually an unattractive proposition to a discerning smoker for subjective reasons, such as flavor, taste and odor.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,060,671, 5,388,594 and 5,692,525 disclose electrical smoking systems and methods of manufacturing a cigarette, and are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,594 describes an electrical smoking system including a novel electrically powered lighter and a novel cigarette that cooperates with the lighter. A plurality of metallic heaters are disposed in a configuration that slidingly receives a tobacco rod portion of the cigarette. The cigarette comprises a tobacco-laden tubular carrier, a cigarette paper overwrapped about the tubular carrier, an arrangement of flow-through filter plugs at a mouthpiece end of the carrier and a filter plug at the free (distal) end of the carrier. The cigarette and the lighter are configured such that when the cigarette is inserted into the lighter, and as individual heaters are actuated for each puff, localized charring occurs at spots about the cigarette in the locality where each heater is bearing against the cigarette (hereinafter referred to as a “heater footprint” or “char zones”). Once all the heaters have been actuated, the cigarette is pulled from contact with the heaters, removed from the lighter and discarded.